The oil spill that shut down a portion of the Keystone 1 pipeline in South Dakota last weekend is much bigger than initially estimated, TransCanada admitted on Thursday—almost 100 times bigger, in fact.

The fossil fuel company said the “potential volume” of the spill in Freeman, discovered by a passerby on Saturday, was about 18,600 gallons, or 400 barrels.

That estimate comes just days after TransCanada initially claimed the spill totaled about 187 gallons, or approximately 4.5 barrels.

“The fact that the damage is even bigger than first reported proves: there is no such thing as a safe pipeline,” Lindsay Meiman, communications coordinator for the climate group 350.org, told Common Dreams. “The only safe place for fossil fuels is in the ground.”

Even at 187 gallons, the spill was already the largest since construction on the pipeline began in 2009, according to the Argus Leader. The new numbers make it one of the biggest leaks in South Dakota history.

Dallas Goldtooth, a Keystone opposition organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, told the Argus Leader on Thursday that the estimate should serve as a warning against new pipeline construction elsewhere and as an example of TransCanada’s reckless legacy.

“This highlights the need for us to [not only] hold TransCanada accountable for their actions, but to use this as an example of the legitimate concerns that people have with future pipelines like Dakota Access,” Goldtooth said, referring to a proposed pipeline that would transport crude oil across four Midwestern states.

TransCanada also said on Thursday it has yet to “pinpoint” the source of the leak.

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement earlier this week that this “disaster is a stark reminder that it’s not a question if a pipeline will malfunction, but rather a question of when.”

There’s that word again……unconstitutional……without common “law and equity”, any discussion about
what is or is not constitutional is a meaningless exercise in futility, where what is “constitutional” becomes
simply what ever the legislature, or the president, or the courts decide, in an ever shifting framework of
corruption with the spoils going to the highest bidder. ( while the ill gotten gains trickle down to those who
facilitate the profits for the oligarchs.) Healthcare is 1/6 to 1/5 of the US economy……which is approximately
18 trillion…..the cost to corrupt through lobbying and donations, now stand s at one billion, to control a market of
between 2.88 and 3.6 trillion dollars. This is ten times greater than the amount required to corrupt and control
the petro market, which is producing environmental destruction on a massive scale, at home and abroad, as
well as requiring massive defense expenditures to protect the interests of oil companies. Interestingly, soldiers
take an “oath” to preserve, protect and defend the “constitution” against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
( as do all elected officials, judges and government employees ) yet it would seem that the “enemy” of the
constitution…..is the government itself. ( which was discarded by FDR in 1933 and rendered completely
irrelevant in 1964 ) Of course, some of the “benefits, privileges and immunities” you enjoy and have enjoyed,
since you voluntarily surrendered your rights ( in ignorance ) had a vague resemblance to those “constitutionally
protected rights” that existed under common “law and equity”……but this illusion is becoming both more difficult
and inconvenient to maintain, and like all corrupted authority, the use of FORCE, becomes the final arbiter….
whether protests are “peaceful” or not. This article and the one detailing Trump’s encouragement of “more” police brutality give clear indication of the path we have been headed down for some time…..as Trump, unlike Hillary,
has no “private” positions….his contempt for the common man is quite obvious. But look on the bright side, if
you are loyal…..positions will be available for some to guard the rest of us….you just MIGHT…get lucky.

Resource exploitation, military occupation and so-called “anti-terror” efforts led by Western countries are destabilizing several countries in Africa, leading to widespread starvation and sickness for millions of people. Famine has become a daily fact of life for many in Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere in Africa.

Iraqi agriculture expert Dr. Nakd Altameemi joins Mnar Muhawesh on ‘Behind the Headline’ to discuss the devastating toll that war, sanctions and Western corporations have had on Iraq’s centuries-old agricultural traditions.

Rania Khalek, an independent journalist who has been blacklisted for her recent reports on Syria, joins Mnar Muhawesh on ‘Behind the Headline’ to discuss the silencing of journalists who oppose the mainstream media’s pro-war agenda.

As an unprecedented wave of outrage swells against the Trump administration, Mnar Muhawesh, host of ‘Behind the Headline,’ wonders why people weren’t more outraged with Obama’s policies on mass surveillance, whistleblowers, and war.